How to find a sales manager - honest instructions. Selection of cold sales managers. By what criteria are sales managers selected?

Sales Manager today is one of the most sought after. For those who currently need such personnel, this article is recommended. First of all, you should immediately determine the qualities necessary for the sales manager, whom you want to see in your composition. The first advice that can be given to the leader is not to make mistakes in choosing a portrait of a candidate for this position, namely:

Consider the "portrait" of the sales manager.

Often, the leader makes a mistake, referring to the education of the desired candidate for the position. As a rule, this aspect is not of particular importance. It is much more important to evaluate a person’s professional qualities, speech literacy, ability to communicate with people, psychological characteristics, seller’s skills, with the exception of those moments where any specific skills and industry knowledge are required. There is an erroneous opinion that it is preferable to have a male person as an employee, as a woman can go on maternity leave or on sick leave to care for her child. Here, too, there are no identical candidates, and the approach should be more individual than template. Women can be much more productive than men for the simple reason that often they only have to rely on themselves, without any support from the outside, and the woman who has to feed her child is capable of unprecedented actions and will show fantastic performance and ingenuity in this industry. The manager selects the age of the manager for himself, but it is known that an employee of this field at the age of 23-35 years is much more productive.

A good sales manager should have the following qualities:

initiative to spend less time on his training, the ability to make decisions independently, not to be afraid of mistakes. After all, only those who do nothing or are afraid to take responsibility do not make mistakes.
possession of the gift of persuasion, because without this no sale will take place.
To be able to “sell” oneself, that is, to gain confidence in the buyer, to find out his needs. If the client trusts you, then most likely he will buy goods from you. In addition, knowledge of the scope of the potential buyer, it is easier to build a long-term and permanent relationship with him.
the manager must be stress-resistant, since not everyone wants to buy your product, and any failure or failure in business is a lot of stress.

You can choose the right sales manager for the following items:

Firstly, the first “dropout” can occur according to the candidate’s sent resume, if any of its parameters does not suit you.
Secondly, you can offer to send a kind of questionnaire with simple questions on the topic “Why do I want to be a sales manager”, “What I know about this industry” and the like, in order to assess literacy, ability to express one’s thoughts, or what kind of - Any nuance noticed by the employer.

If the candidate passed the first two stages, you can invite him to an interview, having determined by the lateness or nervousness of the applicant for the position whether it is worth conducting a personal interview. And finally, a personal interview, and pitfalls that can be thrown "into the garden" of the applicant to finally make sure of his professional suitability.

In this case, you can create stress for the candidate. Any nit-picking on the part of the leader is a ready stress, which not every candidate for the position is capable of painlessly transferring. You can “complain” about his appearance, about how he entered, how he introduced himself, but at the end of the conversation it is necessary to report that this was an artificially created situation - stress.
The next step in the interview should be a reception with the task of selling something, in the form of a game or a real sale, to someone from the office staff. As a rule, a technique with the sale of a pen is used. In this case, it is checked how the person owns the techniques of sales and offers.
Often the technique of an unexpected question is applied. A candidate can be bombarded with all sorts of questions, jumping from a serious topic to a comic one, not allowing him to change his mind and come to his senses. It checks how a person reacts to what is happening and how quickly he can rebuild and recover.
Each leader has his own "methods" of testing the "strength" of the applicant for the position of sales manager, developed in the process of practical work, in any case, the leader himself is guided by the circumstances and trusting professional instinct.

This article is devoted to one of the latest technologies for the selection of sales managers, which combines the elements of all existing methods of personnel selection. Subject to all the necessary requirements, it guarantees a 100% result. In addition, the article analyzes the most common problems associated with recruitment, as well as the shortcomings that are characteristic of most recruitment technologies.

Part 1. Natural selection: only the fittest survive

10.30 p.m. Afonino village near Nizhny Novgorod. Silhouettes of young people in expensive suits arise from the darkness, they persistently drum on the doors of wooden houses; here and there light flashes brightly and confused and sleepy faces of the inhabitants of the village arise. Meanwhile, the atmosphere of enchanting fun reigns on the highway: a girl shows a belly dance, laughter, songs and jokes are heard around, some of the passing cars stop, wild surprise and a dumb question “What is this?” Read easily on the faces of drivers. Nothing, just a competition for the selection of sales managers in one of the Nizhny Novgorod car dealerships.

Modern staff recruitment technologies

There are a lot of technologies for staff selection: case study, assessment, interviews (including stressful), testing, etc. Each of them has both certain advantages and disadvantages. The main weaknesses of all these technologies can be formulated as follows:

1) a huge waste of time resources (time for conducting individual interviews with each candidate, the total amount of time for conducting all stages of selection);

2) the cost of financial resources (salary of HR specialists, lost clients, when the interview is conducted by the head or specialist of the sales department);

3) too subjective assessment of the candidate (at each stage the candidate is evaluated only by one person, with the exception of the assessment center, and often based on any personal preferences);

4) the artificiality of selecting a sales manager, not allowing him to reveal himself and demonstrate his practical sales skills.

And how is the selection of personnel in your company? Do you exhaust candidates with two-hour interviews, tests and cases, arrange stressful interviews, throwing pens at them, asking indecent questions and portraying an inappropriate boss? Or maybe you select employees based on the zodiac constellation in which the Sun and other celestial objects were at the time of the candidate’s birth, or, as some European companies do, are you trying to scan his aura?

Part 2. Problems in selecting sales managers

Now let's dwell on the problems that are typical for almost any business when selecting sales managers. They can be divided into two categories: real problems and so-called far-fetched problems.

Real problems. If we talk about real problems, then all of them are tied into a strict logical chain.

1) The lack of a clear portrait of the candidate and the sales system in the company . To begin with, when selecting a sales manager for a company, a clear portrait of a candidate is often missing. To draw up such a portrait, it is necessary to clearly understand what sales are in the company. What does that require? To do this, answer a number of simple questions:

Who is your customer?
How should communication with a client be built?
At what point in the sales chain will the candidate work?

Judge for yourself: if the sales manager works only on incoming calls - this is one portrait of the candidate, if he needs to run through the fields and engage in active sales - a completely different person is required, but if it comes to sales in the salon, this is the third portrait, etc. d. That is, the portrait of the candidate is drawn up depending on who the client is, how relations with him are built in the company and the sales manager’s work area. The problem of the lack of a clear portrait of the sales manager follows from the most important problem - the lack of a sales system in the company. That is why the company cannot draw up clear criteria for the portrait of the candidate and determine his place in the sales chain. In this regard, she is trying to find a universal specialist who will independently be engaged in finding information about the client, and making cold calls, and holding meetings with the decision-maker, and building further relations with the client after the sale act is completed.

Of course, there are universal sales managers on the market, but one should always take into account the fact that such specialists cannot be equally good in each area of \u200b\u200bwork, since each area requires the manager to have completely different and often completely opposite qualities and skills. Therefore, the most effective is the use of a multi-stage sales system, when one person is engaged in the preliminary collection of information about the client, the other is engaged in cold calling and making appointments, the third is conducting meetings with the first persons of potential customers, and the fourth is the retention and further work with customers. Of course, this approach is possible only if the developed sales system.

2) Lack of responsibility for the decision on the employment of a candidate . Now think about who in your company is responsible for such a decision and the further results of the work of a hired sales manager? Is there such a person in your company or is the selection of personnel at a formal level, that is, when in the case of unsatisfactory results of the hired salesperson, your HR manager only shrugs his hands and says “Well, I don’t know. He seemed to me a good specialist. ” Are your HR managers or the sales manager ready to take responsibility for the hired employee? The answer to this question will be very revealing.

3) Lack of staff training / adaptation / motivation program. There is also a situation where in the first few months of work new sales managers show very good results, but then either their effectiveness drops sharply, or they suddenly leave the company. The result is a constant turnover of personnel: you spend a lot of money on their selection and training, but this does not give any result. What do you think this is connected with? There may be several reasons: either the lack of a training program and staff adaptation, or the lack of manager motivation, and if we consider the problem at the system level, then we can talk about the absence or weak corporate culture of the company.

These are real problems that a business often encounters when selecting sales managers.

Fictitious Problems. As for the so-called far-fetched problems, these are primarily various stereotypes and misconceptions of people who do not have sufficient experience in staff selection and a common understanding of the business.

1) Lack of worthy candidates on the market to work in a company is one of the main misconceptions. Of course, if we talk about the best sales managers, they know their worth and never look for work, they are only redeemed from one business to another. But before you take such a step, think about the consequences of such a decision. After all, it is dangerous because such a specialist comes to the company with his own sales standards and it will simply be impossible to retrain him. In addition, if he is used to working only at meetings with top executives of companies (active sales manager), then it will be difficult for him to work on incoming phone calls or engage in sales in the salon due to his psychological characteristics. And if, in addition, you want him to carry out the full sales cycle, starting with collecting information about the client, while at the previous work he was only engaged in meetings with business owners, then the new work will cause him obvious discomfort and he will be briefly delayed in your company. That is why the best option is to find not a ready-made sales manager, but the so-called semi-finished product, which has all the necessary qualities for working in your company, and grow it yourself by investing in its training and adaptation in the company.

2) Business specificity , which the candidate must necessarily understand in all the smallest details, that is, have experience in sales in a similar business. Tell me, is your business really specific? If so, what is its specificity? Do you really think that it is only necessary to hire a sales manager who has already worked for a company with similar activities? And if at the previous place of work there was a completely different sales system, other corporate standards and ways of communicating with the client, are you sure that having come to your company, such a successful sales manager in another company will remain just as effective? Not! You cannot be sure of that. Therefore, in this case, it would be most reasonable to find a sales manager who has experience working with your target audience, and he can sell absolutely everything to her: from covers for tanks and multi-spindle machines to software for company accounting. Why? Very simple: he knows how to work with your audience, how to find out her needs and how to build relationships with her. That is why such a manager can always offer her exactly what she needs.

3) A sales manager is a talent bestowed by nature, and this profession cannot be learned if a person has no innate ability to sell effectively. Let me break this stereotype with practical observations. Long-term practice shows that, provided that developed corporate sales standards and internal employee motivation are in place, absolutely anyone can become a successful sales manager. You yourself can conduct a similar experiment and see for yourself.

Part 3. How to make a portrait of an ideal sales manager?

Before proceeding with the recruitment of sales managers, it is necessary to draw up a clear portrait of him, which must necessarily include the following points:

Customer-Product Matrix

This matrix is \u200b\u200ba table and clearly shows the features of sales in your company, namely: which product and which customer sells. This will allow you to understand what knowledge of which product and experience with which target audience the candidate needs to have when selecting for your vacancy.

What is more important: product knowledge or customer knowledge?

If your business is structured, the product is simple and clear, and your company operates in the b2c market, then you need a manager with good knowledge of the product. If sales in your company are built individually in relation to each client, and the product itself is quite complicated, then you need a manager who has experience in sales to your target audience. And this experience, of course, is a more valuable skill than knowing a product, no matter how difficult it is.

Sales Manager Functionality

The functional of the candidate consists of two elements. Firstly, this is his experience, or acquired skills, and secondly, the knowledge that he received at the university, showing the general level of development of the candidate.

Psychological portrait of the candidate

It can include a huge number of indicators and individual characteristics, starting with the general personality structure (for example, an active sales manager or a salon seller, etc.) and ending with the candidate's motivation. As for motivation, you must clearly substantiate why a particular candidate would like to work in your company.

Part 4. Technology of the recruitment competition for sales

And now let us dwell directly on the technology of the competition for the selection of personnel in sales, which has already proved its effectiveness and practical significance.

Scope of technology

This technology can be applied only when the company already has an established sales system, as well as a training and adaptation program for sales managers after being hired, and regular mass recruitment of personnel for sales takes place. If there are no sales systems and personnel adaptation programs in the company, then holding such contests will become a waste of resources. In the absence of sales standards, hired managers simply will not be able to understand what and how they need to do, they will feel abandoned. As a result, you will suffer from constant high staff turnover already in the first month of managers' work. Moreover, this process will continue until a sales system is built in the company.

Technology benefits

Firstly, this technology significantly saves time on staff recruitment. The competition lasts about six hours. During the competition, about 30 people are evaluated. Thus, each person takes about 12 minutes of time. Now compare these time costs to those that you carry using other personnel selection technologies.

Secondly, the technology almost completely eliminates errors in the selection of personnel. As a rule, there are five people in the commission who have experience in sales, both in the area of \u200b\u200byour business and from related businesses. When a candidate goes through all stages of the competition, 15 expert opinions are formed on his account. Thus, the probability of an individually subjective attitude to the candidate is excluded.

Finally, thirdly, the technology allows you to get an exhaustive amount of information for each candidate: product knowledge and sales (theoretical knowledge), practical sales skills, psychological portrait of the candidate, his motivation, as well as his model of behavior in a stressful situation. And all this can be obtained by spending for each candidate only a little more than ten minutes of time.

In fact, this technology is nothing more than an imitation of natural selection, when in real conditions the candidate needs to demonstrate all of his practical sales skills and in fact prove that he is the best, thereby eliminating all of his closest competitors. At the same time, the entire competition procedure is structured in such a way as to create a tough competitive environment from the very beginning and to weed out the weakest candidates at the first stages, humanely saving them from a fierce struggle at the last stage of the competition. Indeed, as we recall from the course of biology, it is intraspecific competition that is the most fierce. The same thing happens in life and in competition. All sales managers as representatives of one type differ from each other in one way or another. But since they all have exactly the same needs, it becomes obvious how difficult and exhausting their struggle between themselves becomes, in which only the strongest win. And this is precisely the main advantage of the technology of the competition in comparison with the assessment center. Indeed, during assessment, artificial conditions are created for the candidate (for example, the favorite game of HR managers when they imitate the situation of the sale with the candidate), in which he simply cannot fully reveal himself and show everything that he can. The technology of the competition completely solves this problem.

Part 5. Competition algorithm

1) CV collection

The collection of resumes and the selection of candidates for the competition is carried out only on the basis of consideration of the candidate's experience. All other information is completely unimportant. Candidates with no sales experience are usually screened out in either the first or second stage. In this case, the competition will be held only under the condition that at least ten candidates for one place will be selected, half of which must have experience in sales to the target audience of the company. Thus, the task of this stage is to collect as many resumes as possible, which allows you to create the maximum possible competitive environment among candidates.

2) Blitz dating

The objectives of this stage is to assess the material claims of the candidate in your company and his overall assessment as a sales manager.

During this stage, simple questions are asked, but tied into a rigid logical chain (the so-called projective techniques).

For example, the first simplest question is as follows: “How much do you want to earn here? “Firstly, the candidate’s response shows his ambitiousness, and secondly, how well he is familiar with your business. So, if a candidate during an interview at a car dealership selling premium class cars says that he wants to earn only 20,000 rubles a month, this means that he does not quite understand how your business is structured.

Second question: “What proportion of salary and percentage of sales do you think is the fairest?” The candidate’s response will show you his so-called genetic ability to be a seller. If he says that the proportion should be 50 to 50, then you definitely do not have a sales manager in front of you, if he calls the proportion 20 to 80, then such a candidate is most likely a good seller.

This question is paired with the following question: "What is the minimum salary that suits you?" After the candidate names a specific amount, he is asked the following question: “What kind of minimum wage will we get from you?” . This question tests his way of thinking: whether he is focused on the result or more on the process. So, if he says that first of all he will come and study your product, and then he will follow his job descriptions, then most likely you will see a process-oriented person. If the candidate says that he will sell your product, then this is a result-oriented manager. After that, the question of what will be its monthly sales will be reasonable. If the candidate is new to your business, then the task can be simplified by setting a specific figure for the incoming customer flow and know how many of them will be able to sell the company's product. The answer to this question shows the candidate’s understanding of your business, as well as his willingness to take responsibility for the result. A process-oriented manager will go much longer to a specific answer, hesitate and say that the sales volume will depend, for example, on whether these incoming customers, etc. Thus, he is not ready to take responsibility for the result and make any additional efforts, for example, in the absence of incoming customers in salon sales. It also shows what the candidate is ready to work for your company. As a rule, it is those people who already at the first stage demonstrate their initiative and willingness to take responsibility, show the best results at the last most important stage of the competition.

Also at this stage, candidates fill out questionnaires on product knowledge and theoretical sales fundamentals. According to the results of this round, about half of the candidates go to the next stage.

3) Imitation of sales

At this stage, the sales situation is simulated and the candidate’s ability to establish contact, the ability to find out needs, present a product and work with objections at a price are tested.

At this stage, the presence of sellers from another business in the commission is especially important so that ignorance of the product does not lead to a decrease in the assessment of the candidate by members of the commission. Because if the candidate is not well acquainted with the product of the company, then his rating automatically falls in the eyes of the experts of your business, but this does not bother other experts, since they pay attention to the candidate’s sales technique. Thus, the commission should be balanced in composition.

In addition, the future head of the candidate, who has the right of taboo for any applicant, must also be present in the commission. This means that even if the other members of the commission voted to skip the candidate to the next stage, the boss may refuse and not let the applicant go to the next round. In this case, his voice will be decisive. This places the responsibility for recruiting a particular candidate directly on his future leader. In addition, this opinion of the boss is especially important, since the candidate will work precisely under his leadership and it is necessary that he fully suits him both in his personal and professional qualities.

At this stage, candidates additionally fill out questionnaires that reveal their psychological profile and motivation.

4) Field test

The last stage is the real conditions of life. It consists in the fact that all candidates who have passed on this tour are sent to a specific section of the city (pedestrian street, parking in front of a supermarket, etc.) and they have the goal of selling as much as possible and taking contacts from their buyer. At the same time, the site should be selected in such a way that it is fully visible so that observers can go a certain distance during the sale and see how the candidate behaves.

During this stage, a lot is evaluated: the candidate’s sales skills at all stages of the sale, from establishing contact with a stranger to negotiations on the candidate’s price, model and sales strategy, his motivation, etc.

The assessment of the applicant at this stage begins, first of all, with an analysis of which sales strategy the candidate uses in real life. At the same time, the sales strategies for the candidates may be different. For example, the strategy of numerous small sales without negotiating a price: stops everyone in a row, offers them the same product and agrees to any price that the buyer will call. Another candidate, for example, selectively stops a person from the stream and finds out his needs, and then tries to offer something. Someone likes to gather around them a crowd of people and sell in large quantities. For example, girls very often gather young people around them and sell at the expense of their appearance. There are very entrepreneurial people. For example, at one of the contests, a young man bought balloons at a kiosk, puffed them up and sold them to girls at a 50% margin, others tell jokes, sing songs or dance. At the same time, the sale of self-made services is most highly rated. But there are candidates who, having made one sale, stand aside and smoke, for example, having sold their mobile phone at a cost of 6 thousand rubles for 3 thousand rubles.

This stage most clearly shows what candidates are ready to get a place in the company. There were times when people even sold things from themselves - purses, mobile phones and stuff for half price just to get a job. This indicates commitment and motivation of the candidate.

The results of the stage are evaluated according to two criteria: formal and informal. The formal criterion is indicators such as the total sales of the candidate, the number of completed sales and average sales. An informal criterion is to evaluate the candidate’s sales strategy: how and to whom he sold. It is also important to find out from the buyer the motive for his purchase: whether he bought out of pity so that the candidate lags behind, or really because the service offered to him by the candidate was exactly what he needs.

After this stage, deeper psychodiagnostic methods can be applied to the finalists, if necessary, but this is usually not required. In general, it is recommended to record all stages of the competition for a voice recorder and a video camera, so that in case of doubt when choosing a candidate in the final, you can once again return to the records and revise your assessment of the candidate. The decision on the final selection of the finalists is made on the same day on the basis of expert evaluations received by the candidate throughout the competition.

Conditions for a successful competition

In order for the competition to take place and be as effective as possible, the following conditions must be observed.

Develop a portrait of the necessary sales manager.
Provide the required number of candidates in the proportion of ten people per seat.
Draw up a clear program for adaptation and staff training after the end of the competition.

Thus, currently there are many different tools for the selection and evaluation of personnel. According to the described technology, more than a dozen contests have already been held and several hundred candidates have been reviewed. The competition most optimally combines all the existing technologies for personnel selection: interviewing, assessment center, questionnaires, etc., which provides a lot of advantages for the company: saving time (about 12 minutes for each candidate) and the maximum amount of information for each candidate (psychological portrait, practical sales skills, product knowledge, etc.).

Sergey Koshechkin, Anna Mushtakova, BusinessCom

There are two difficulties in working with personnel: we hire the wrong people, we manage in the wrong way. And if from the point of view of management we are strong only in how to increase efficiency.

In hiring sales managers (they are also sellers in retail) we feel very comfortable, at least because we constantly practice the search for sales personnel in our company.

Hire, not buy

Great surprise can be seen in the eyes of an entrepreneur who has just started hiring staff.

The idea that if you give a good salary and conditions, then the people will go in a crowd and each of them will be a superhero, crumbling like a sand castle on the seashore.

Practice shows the opposite - people go reluctantly, and if they come, then most of them are not at all prof. fit.

Sales staff - this is one of the most difficult professions in the selection. Therefore, you need to approach this process systematically.

And it all starts not with the formation of the announcement. This business is not so complicated as it is painted.

It all starts with the formation of values \u200b\u200band working conditions. And this is not for you to sack potato bags.

I focus on this, because from our experience the reason for the weak flow of potential candidates lies initially in the absence of competitive conditions.

Now is the time when not you choose, but you are chosen. This sounds nonsense, especially if you look at the ratio of vacancies and resumes.

But we must take into account not a quantitative indicator, but a qualitative one. And such managers are already ten times smaller.

Therefore, before proceeding to the instructions below, you need to take a fresh look at your company and then monitor the conditions that competitors offer.

If you initially lose, it is better to invest a little money and effort to make the conditions as tasty as possible, and only then make an open day for future sellers.

And one more important point. Define your job profile clearly. Portrait of the person you are looking for.

From the fact that I say the following phrase, most likely nothing will change, but still:

Important. No need to look for multi-armed and multi-legged. You must clearly understand who you are looking for and the tasks that he will solve.

Multi-functional employees are not located, they grow inside the company. And this is a completely different song.

We seek and do not complain

To conduct a selection, you need someone to be selected. The logic is iron, I know.

But even with the search for people and inviting them to an interview, many have difficulties, as a result of which we hear the phrase: “People are completely snickering, they don’t want to work.”

Therefore, first of all, we will consider how to find, and only then how to choose a seller or manager.

And I immediately warn you, I am not voicing non-standard / labor-intensive ways to find a good sales manager.

To them I relate: “steal” from another company, grow from another employee, find in sales training, ask friends and so on.

All this has a place to be, but it requires more professional skills and I will not be able to disclose them in this article.

WE HAVE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

Option 1: Passive Search (Ad)

The laziest way to attract a good salesperson is to place an ad on relevant sites and wait for a response.

I called him lazy not by chance, since it requires minimal resources. Nevertheless, it also requires certain knowledge, so as not to be broken.

We monitored a huge number of ads and came to the conclusion that all successful companies use a similar ad structure.

Therefore, without thinking for a long time, we copied and improved it in terms of marketing. Therefore, you can also not invent a bicycle and take our sequence:

Short and bright about yourself. In one sentence, tell us who you are and what you do;
Position and reason. Write the position you are looking for and what it is connected with;
The main benefits. Catch attention with good reasons why your position is better than others;
Opportunities. Increase interest in you through future opportunities;
Responsibilities. Describe what a person will need to do in the process of work;
No need to do (individually). Write what you will not need to do in your work;
Requirements. Express your wishes to the future employee;
Conditions. Specify as much as possible what the candidate will receive;
Time limit. Create a stir by determining the deadline for filing applications;
Call to action + contacts. Show what you need to do to send the application.

If you are not the first day in business, then you can easily compose your ad on this structure.

I deliberately do not post an example of our implementation of such an announcement, otherwise everyone will have everything as if by template. You should be distinguished at least by your pitch.

For example (I’m exaggerating), I’m writing not “An experienced team of like-minded people”, but “A team of superheroes with 7 different abilities: from a person-designer to a person-you know”.

Once again, this is important. You need to write an ad in non-dry language in the style of “reliable company” or “stable payments”.

This is the last century, even for Gazprom. A true sales manager is an active and non-standard person, which means he wants to work in a no less advanced company.

In addition, you need to be clearly aware that very soon the generation grown on iPhones, and not on coupons for bread, will fully take up this position.

Important. It is optimal to indicate the average salary, this will not create high expectations (often they are not believed in them) and at the same time it will not be frightened off by a low base rate.

Just do not hide this figure and hope that they will call you. This must be a very famous company so that people knock on your door so actively.

Option 2. Active search (calls)

If the mountain does not go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must pick up the phone and call. Are you surprised?

I hope not at all, since even contrary to the logic that the manager always takes the first step, you need to do the opposite.

You take sites with announcements and start phoning all suitable resumes on sites.

Unfortunately, now almost all sites have made paid access to resumes of employees. Either pay for each open resume, or just buy access for a certain period.

And this was not done by chance. Indeed, now mostly managers are used to posting their resumes and waiting for an invitation, than going to the front and calling on their own.

This is primarily due to the fact that good employees are already working somewhere, and if they are looking for another job, they do it slowly.

I do not exclude the situation when a super seller will be actively searching, but as practice shows, this happens much less often. Therefore, there is only one verdict - it is better to call on your own than to wait for feedback.

Moreover, get ready, the conversation should also go through a certain one.

You need to properly present your company and hook a person so that he comes to you for an interview.

This is difficult, because you initially find yourself in the position of “asking,” but if you really have a strong offer on the market, then just a few minutes and roles can change dramatically.

Interesting. Recently, we often find professional sellers on Avito than on specialized job search sites.

We select and do not regret

At first, we, like everyone else, used the approach with individual interviews, until we got tired (sorry) and did not meet the book of Konstantin Baksht, where he talks about the mass approach.

I just want to warn you right away, with us it differs from what is written in the book and from those that you will find on the Internet.

We have developed our own style, which brings the best results at the moment.

A mass approach is when you invite up to 10 people for one position at a time, without telling them about it. Yes Yes!

No panic is necessary. We do this in order to make it easier to see “Salesmen” and “Not salesmen” with this approach.

Moreover, at such a meeting, your company grows in the eyes of the candidates, as they see that there are several applicants for one place.

Important. In large cities, mass interviews are not new, be prepared for potential employees to know the answers to your entire list of interview questions.

Stage 1. Introduction

Well, you invited everyone for one time and are waiting. At this time, your future sales terrorists gradually come to the waiting room, perplexed by inspecting all people and asking the banal question: “Are you all recorded at 14.30?”.

Some of them, upon hearing the answer, will be slightly surprised, but they will sit down with a straight face to wait for the beginning, another part, being at a loss, will quietly unfold under the pretext of “Where is the toilet?” And leave.

And let them go, we do not need such sellers who are shy or afraid of competition in the company.

When the appointed time struck the clock and all potential employees gathered in one place, we begin our show program.

At the beginning you need to introduce yourself by giving your name with a position and 1-2 offers about yourself, for example, how long have you been working in the company and what have you achieved.

Then be sure to thank all of them for coming, and then “program” the applicants for timing and sequence, telling them how things will develop further.

For many, the interview is stressful, and you are still having a massive interview (as a rule, people initially prepare for a personal interview, prepare answers to questions, imagine how they will sell a pen, etc.).

Therefore, just in case, I ask at the end the question: “Are there anyone who wants to immediately pick up and leave?”.

Earlier, behind the first exit that followed, there were still a couple who were embarrassed to take the first step towards the door, but now I see a situation where, on the contrary, people demand that the banquet continue without even blinking an eye.

Stage 2. Presentation of the company and vacancies

At the second stage, our task is to present the company and the vacancy. True, I prefer to use the word "sell" instead of "present."

We start, of course, with the sale of the company. It is necessary to make such a pitch so that everyone wants to work for you and understands that this is not a company, but a tidbit.

After we talked about the company, we must sell the vacancy. After all, it is one thing to work in a large and well-known company, and another thing is to work there with terrible conditions and excessive requirements.

The sequence of your further presentation is based on the following scheme:

The reason for the vacancy. We tell why we decided to hire a new employee;
Vacancy profile. We voice the characteristics of a person who is perfect;
Working conditions. We show that it is profitable and useful to work with you.

Pay attention to the second paragraph “Vacancy profile”. In it you need to state as accurately as possible what qualities you will pay attention to when choosing.

And in the future you should also monitor those people who resonate with them in their answers, and even better voice them during self-presentation (the next stage).

Based on the results of this block, I finally ask what questions there are about the company, vacancies and conditions.

If there were too many questions, then I congratulate you, you are poorly prepared for the presentation, which means you have also poorly sold your company. If there are no questions, then you are a great fellow and you can move on.

Stage 3. Mass survey

Now we come to the interview itself, where you will learn how to choose the right sellers. This stage consists of a questionnaire, questions and a meeting.

These three stages go sequentially and each of them has a specific task.

Based on the results of these stages, it will be clear which of those who came will go to the next stage, and who will be the weakest link and leave your frontal place.

Profile

Before meeting with applicants you need to print out a questionnaire with selection criteria.

It is a list of 10-15 criteria that employees are guided by when choosing a future job.

Among these criteria must necessarily be: a high salary, a comfortable place to work, a friendly team. The rest is individually tailored to your business.

You give out this questionnaire to each person with the words: “Sign the questionnaire and mark the 3 most important criteria for you when choosing a future job”.

In order not to get lost in the surnames, I also ask everyone who comes to pay for serial numbers from left to right, and sign it next to the name.

Just a minute after the distribution, you will receive back all the materials where you can see who and what pays attention to when choosing a job.

Initially, I thought that people would trick and write what the employer wants to see. But as practice shows, people often write the truth in these profiles, even if it is 70%.

Questions

This part is the most stressful for those sitting in front of you. You start it with a fairly simple task - everyone should present themselves within 30 seconds.

To do this, you take out a stopwatch and everyone talks about himself in any format. With a rigid selection, I recommend not asking the beginning of the queue, but asking who wants the first one.

As a rule, the first raise their hands the most suitable for the position in terms of activity.

Some of the speakers can’t keep up even in 30 seconds, while for others, on the contrary, 5 seconds will be enough.

But the main thing is not the duration of the presentation, but its quality. A person must sell himself on the right side for you.

That is why you at the very beginning so detailed told who you are looking for and what requirements you provide for candidates.

After the presentation, it is already clear who has the potential, but we do not give up and continue the selection. The next test is three tricky questions of your choice.

My most frequently asked: “What is the sale for you?”. The ideal answer is “Result”. But if you take it big, then there is no ideal answer. What matters is how a person speaks and how he thinks.

For example, those who voiced that selling is the ability to identify a need, I see that a person is more focused on work and does not always think this is a bad answer.

Life hack. In order not to get confused in the answers, I put a plus or minus (like or dislike) for each answer in the participant’s profile.

Meeting and results

Thanking everyone for the answers, you, together with all the selectors, retire to a separate room and issue a verdict - who will go to the next stage.

First of all, you should rely on self-presentation (how a person was able to sell himself), then on a questionnaire (how much are you similar in values) and then on three answers (what kind of thinking a person has).

Based on the dropout results, you publicly name those who went to the next stage.

And also, to cheer everyone up and finish the interview on a positive note, you can give out mini gifts or discount cards from your company.

After all, today they are your potential employees, and tomorrow they can become your existing customers.

Your gifts from partners

Stage 4. Personal interview

This stage is familiar to everyone, it is no different from what you do with the standard hiring of employees.

Only you already do not communicate with everyone, but with the best. It giganticly saves your time and increases dropout efficiency.

Question answer

How did the famous detective Sherlock Holmes solve mysterious murders so easily? He paid attention to the details. You need to do the same in this step.

When asking questions, you should notice the details in the answers, look for investigative links and inconsistencies with other known facts about the candidate.

In a short period of time (about 20 minutes) you need to ask the most piercing questions in order to decide whether to take a person for a trial period or not.

All these questions are divided into three zones, which show a person from all sides. We call them analyzes and some of the questions from them look like this:

Analysis of professional competencies (how good a seller is)

Describe 5 of your great achievements in work
How many calls did you make per day / What was the conversion from visitor to transaction?
Your biggest deal?
10 of your first workplace activities
Was there any experience in our field?

Analysis of motivation (what and how motivates)

What did not like in the previous place of work?
What is your ideal motivation?
What are your hobbies?
Why the profession of manager / sales consultant?
What are you willing to work for if it’s not money?

Compensation analysis (how much money is needed)

The minimum threshold for which you are ready to work?
What do you buy first thing for 100 000 rubles?
How long have you been pleased with yourself?
What is the most expensive purchase in the last six months?
About how much do you spend on yourself?

Questions for an interview with a sales manager are pretty commonplace.

That is why there are whole articles for sellers where they teach to speak correctly by who he sees himself after 3 years and why he changes his place of work so often.

By this I do not say that your task is to be different from everyone else. The goal is to get the answer “from the heart”, not a prepared template.

And for this you need to be able to ask ordinary questions, choosing other words.

But in order to be able to reformulate the questions, you need to understand their essence. For example, asking the question: “Who do you see yourself in 3 years?”, We want to find out how big a person’s ambitions are in the long run.

Therefore, we can easily replace it with “What do you choose: now a small salary, but after 2 years the position of manager with a 90% probability and with a salary 5 times more, or now a high salary, but no increase for 3 years?”.

Case stage

Seller seller sees from afar. Therefore, it is very important that a sales-oriented person is present at this step, because it is here that the applicant will show his skill in business.

Namely, you offer to imitate a real sale of a product. Where he is the seller, and you are the buyer.

For clarity of selection, we always offer to depict the sale of a fictitious product. For example, a cream for baldness or a chair with three legs.

This is necessary so that a person is not afraid to make mistakes in technical details and shows his ingenuity, and most importantly - how he behaves in unusual situations.

Pay attention not only to creativity and acting, but also to the use of 8 stages of the sales technique.

The real seller will first make contact, then find out the need and only then present the product.

And be sure to remember to check how it will be from the series “Expensive”, “It is necessary to consult”, “Give a discount” and so on.

Important. At the end of the interview, we never give an answer right away. We need to show what we choose. Therefore, take a break until the next day (in rare cases, until the evening).

Briefly about the main thing

Now you see that the questions “Where to find a sales manager” and “How to choose a seller” do not look as simple as it seems at first.

For their successful implementation you need to go through 4 stages + preliminary search.

And most likely, if you have a constant flow of customers, it’s best to hire an individual person and give him this instruction.

According to statistics, in order to choose the right employee, you need to review 50 candidates.

For you, this means 5 mass interviews and about 5 people who went on an internship.

That's right, until you take people out for an internship, you won’t understand whether it’s your person or not. Therefore, after reading and implementing this instruction, you can then begin to develop an adaptation plan.

Any business rests on sales: goods, services, applications, so even one ingenious salesperson can bring the company to the plus and “feed” the rest of the employees. How to choose a sales manager who not only in theory knows the negotiation technique and approach to customers, but also knows how to put it into practice?

Who are you looking for?

Before looking for a specialist, decide on who exactly you are looking for - the more detailed you write down the candidate’s profile, the faster you will find the right one. If your company has only one sales manager, then it must be an experienced employee, a sales shark with self-confidence and the ability to work without a team. If you already have strong sales people, then you can allow yourself to hire an average specialist who will perform routine work for the first time, help and gain experience and courage in parallel.

Formulate for yourself the main tasks that a manager should perform, what professional and personal qualities he should possess. For example, you need a specialist who will communicate with potential VIP class clients, find a common language with them and arouse trust, then it is better to choose a person with an impeccable appearance, higher education and well-delivered speech.

If you sell medical equipment or some specific equipment, then you should look for a person who is versed in this field, knows how to work with technical literature, and speak about the product in an accessible language. However, if you are ready to take the time and adaptations of the employee and do not expect active sales, then these points can be neglected.

What qualities should a pro have?

Independence in decision making, ability to quickly respond to a changing situation, initiative. Such an employee will not ask you unnecessary questions, he chooses a communication strategy, an approach to the client, immediate goals and actions to achieve them, and does even more than is required.
Self-confidence and persuasiveness, because the manager must push the insecure person to purchase, make sure that the interlocutor positively perceives the product or service. Such a person knows how to listen to a person and perceive his problems, will be able to choose the appropriate style of interaction, to achieve mutual understanding.
Sociability, the ability to find a common language with the client, it is clear and simple to talk about complex things and listen to the interlocutor.
Stress resistance, the ability to control oneself even during a conflict, the opportunity to establish a dialogue in difficult circumstances and find a compromise, work effectively in the conditions of deadline and uncertainty.

Vacancy bait

There is always a great demand for a good sales manager, therefore such specialists do not sit idle for a long time, and low competition, only 2-3 people per place, allows you to choose the best of hundreds of offers. Experienced and professional salespeople are attracted to detailed, specific and competently written vacancies.

In the announcement clearly describe the tasks of the employee, the more interesting, the better. Describe the possible prospects of work in the company: salary, interest and bonus system, reward for quality work for six months, a year or three years. You can talk about additional incentives: a comfortable workplace, modern equipment, an intense corporate life, a social package.

Be sure to write about the company itself: area of \u200b\u200bactivity, how long it has been working, what are its development plans, website and contacts.

Separate the grain from the chaff

By placing a well-written ad, in the first few days you will get a dozen, or maybe more, feedback. How to understand a heap of resumes? Look how competently the candidate’s questionnaire has been drawn up, because the sales manager should be able to write without errors, briefly, but capaciously. Pay attention to the photo, does the person in the portrait relate to your idea of \u200b\u200bthe manager, does his appearance evoke a positive impression.

Check if the description contains real results and achievements of the employee at the previous place of work, it is better if specific indicators and figures are prescribed. Plus to the resume - recommendations and contacts of people who can confirm the listed successes. It is not always indicative if the candidate worked for a well-known company and sold untwisted goods, because they are bought much more readily than unknown brands.

It is not always good if the candidate worked for a well-known company and sold untwisted goods, because they are bought much more readily than unknown brands.

Try it: in what areas of sales he tried himself, how he progressed through his career. It will be strange if a manager by the age of 40 is in the position of an ordinary employee, perhaps for his growth he lacks knowledge, skills or ambitions.

What to ask about?

After choosing 5-10 candidates, invite them personally, prepare questions for the candidates in advance, so that you have a complete impression of the person. A true sales manager can not only sell goods and services to a client, but also himself to an employer.

Possible interview questions:

What tasks and goals did the work set for you in the previous place, how did you achieve them?
What results have you achieved during your career, how much do you consider them successful?
How would you attract new customers to our company?
Was there a case when you did more than was required of you?
Describe the "difficult" client, what is it? Have you encountered this and how did you communicate with him?
What stressful situations did you face at work and how did you resolve conflicts?
How do you cope with heavy loads, have you had such an experience in the past?
What are your advantages and disadvantages?
Why did you leave your previous job and what do you expect from a new job?
What will you do to improve your work and develop your skills?

You can arrange a check right during the interview: ask one of the employees to call under the guise of a potential client or let the candidate call the sales department under the guise of a client and evaluate the work of current managers.

Business trial

No matter how skillfully and interestingly a specialist answers you, it is best to determine his qualities and skills in practice. Therefore, take the 3-5 best candidates for a two-week internship, especially if you doubt the choice of the right person and are afraid to hire a pseudo-specialist. Do not expect that in the process the employees will make you big sales, pay attention to the quality of the employees, how diligently they fulfill their duties, whether they can communicate with people, and try to study a potential buyer.

No matter how skillfully and interestingly a specialist answers you, it is best to determine his qualities and skills in practice.

Candidates without experience, but with burning eyes that you take on the role of assistants, do not immediately send to communicate with clients, it is better to attach him to a more experienced employee, give simple but important tasks, see if he shows interest in the company, product, work. Such a "test of deed" will help you choose a worthy among all the candidates and find a sales person who can not only speak but also do.

“A man (woman) 25-35 years old, higher education, sales experience of 1 year, motivation, sociability, ability to work in a team ...” Somewhere we already read this, right? Vacancy search engines are awash with job offers in sales and the demands that employers make are very similar to each other.

Finding a good sales manager is incredibly important, because he will bring you new customers and increase the company's profit. How to determine if the young man sitting opposite you in your office is right for you? Consider a few useful principles.

Tip 1.Draw a portrait.Who is he at all, your salesman? It would be good to determine in advance what specific qualities you need and then purposefully find out their presence with the candidate. The portrait of a manager depends entirely on the specifics of your company. Answer a few questions:

To whom and what are you selling?If you are going to sell anti-wrinkle and anti-aging cosmetics, it would be strange if the guys of 23 years old were doing this. Most likely, in your case everything is not so obvious, but still it would be nice to at least roughly understand what kind of gender and age can find a common language with your potential customers.
How should customer relationships be built?If you work in the b2b segment and are in contact mainly with large executives, that is, with serious people, then communication with them should be appropriate. A young and naive seller, taking "in a snap", simply will not be allowed to negotiate. A calm and balanced approach is needed here, and this must be taken into account when selecting personnel.
How should the sales team work? Perhaps you are planning to build a multi-stage system when sales are carried out in stages. Then you need to select people for specific tasks: cold calls - separately, formation of the base - separately, meetings and signing of contracts - separately. If all the steps are performed by one person, then you need people with a universal set of qualities.

Tip 2. The ability to file yourself.Trite, but usually it is really important. At the interview, it is easy to evaluate how a person behaves, whether he knows how to put words into sentences, does he even understand where he came from and why and so on. Your assessment is likely to be terribly subjective, but some things can be determined right away.

Tip 3. Motivation.The most important success factor for any seller. Many of your manager’s shortcomings will come to naught if he is extremely motivated. Can this be determined in an interview? Sometimes this can be done by tactfully asking about a person’s life situation. If you have a single woman with a small child, then she will have to do everything in order to earn money, and this is only to your advantage.

Tip 4. Probation.No matter how insightful a person you are, it’s still difficult to understand in a few minutes whether the person sitting in front of you can effectively sell. Therefore, if in doubt, or the choice is small, it is better to give the applicant a couple of weeks and look at him in daily work mode. Is he able to learn? Does he cope with stress? Is his sociability manifested? And in general, how much is it assembled, organized, and can it work systematically? You can find out all this during the trial period, and only then you can select the best.

There is no universal formula for choosing a sales manager. When dealing with people, it is difficult to guess who will be able to sell and who will not - too many factors influence this, so anyway you can’t do without mistakes in this matter. And yet, if you know your customers well and have a clear idea of \u200b\u200bwho you need, your searches will be successful!

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